Off The Grid // Tropical Black & White Marble Nail Art Design

More looks using the collab plate from MoYou London! I really wanted to do something similar to the cover sleeve and originally had this:

But I felt it was missing something. I also wanted to cover up some of the patchy black lines...one day I will be able to paint straight black lines and I'll never have to stamp again. I looked through my stash and found some tropical water decals and decided to stick them on top:

I think it turned out well! These water decals are much better than others I've used. I found that they didn't have that annoying white cut out around them that some do and it didn't immediately try to fold onto itself when sliding it off the paper. I think they were £2 for a pack of 50 assorted designs? I'll have to try and find the listing on eBay again to get some more as there were only 2 small sheets of the tropical designs.

I wore this with a peel off base coat but it managed to last a day an half before one of the nails slid off. I could't stop staring at my hand; I really loved this design. I think the pop of green really made it. The marble background was done by smooshing the dark grey shade with white and then stamping it on top of a white background.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Ciaté // White Heat (white)
- Twinkled T // Ghosted (dark grey), Vibin' (black)
- STZ Water Decals // STZ-828 Tropical Decals
- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Collab 03
- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

NAIL ACCESSORIES // Meiguimei Blue Marble Nail Stickers Review

Behold! I have found nail stickers that aren't awful! I didn't have high hopes for these, especially after using the tropical holo stickers but these were easy to use and look great. The longest part of this design was letting the nail polish dry.

The blue marble pieces are in long strips so you need to cut them to the size that you want. They are quite sticky so unless you've let you polish dry it will lift it up and cause marks.

I used a quick dry top coat which looked fine at first however it did cause the stickers to shrivel up a little and there are bubbles around the side. I'd definitely recommend using just a normal top coat.

For £1.29 per sheet though this is a quick and super easy way to get marble nails. I might actually try to recreate this look using acrylic paint because it seems relatively simple.

Polishes/Tools Used:
- Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine // Coconut (off white), Sour Candy (blue)
- Barry M Wetset // Quick Dry Top Coat
- Meiguimei // Marble Nail Stickers

Pool Party // NCLA Nail Wraps Review

I received these a while ago in the Pool Party Meebox and since it's summer I've decided that I need to do something with them.

I'm not great with decals of any kind and these ones haven't even been produced properly! They've  been printed off to the side so a quarter of the design has been left out and the black outlines have ended up on the nail design...talk about quality control. NCLA products aren't cheap either. This particular design isn't sold anymore but they're $10 each (I don't even want to know how much shipping + import is) or £10.95 to buy from UK stores. That's an insane amount of money. I might have to try and recreate these nails using plastic wrap or something.

These nail wraps were a bit bent as well from being stored in the too small Meebox and the packaging was ripped...not off to great start. There is also a mini cardboard emery board included to file off excess product. You get 4 of each size, apart from the largest which only has 2. I suppose in theory this means you can get 4 looks out of this set. When you compare that to a salon visit, I guess £10.95 isn't bad.

I started off with a base coat and then started off with my little finger. I thought the smallest size would fit no problem, however due to how it's been cut, it actually misses a good 2mm off my nail and includes the black line and then white area around the cutout.

The nail wrap was also very sticky and because of this is actually pulled my base coat off from the nail and just came off entirely in place. They don't curve well so unless your nails are completely flat; you're gonna have a bad time.

The thumb was the worst as the wraps are super rounded at the cuticle end and the nail beds on my thumbs are square so they don't fit properly at all. 

Overall, it honestly looks like a 5 year has glued bits of paper to my nails. Filing the bits of paper off does absolutely nothing except make it look worse; like the paper has been submerged in water and has flaked off. If anything you'll just start filing your own nails.

I applied a top coat thinking it would solve all my problems but now my problems are just glossy...Sounds like most things in my life.

1/10, would not recommend. They do have some nice looking wraps on their website though that I might recreate. But these are too thick (even though they are described as ultra thin) and sticky and you can't smooth them out properly. I noticed on their website they've applied them to flatter false nails and the model is wearing the false nails. Obviously it's going to be much better applying them to false nails as you don't have to deal with awkward hand positions and nail beds getting in the way. Let's just say between these and the tropical holo nail stickers; I've been put off nail stickers....I still have a few more to review though that I bought off eBay...*le sigh*

NAIL ACCESSORIES // Gold Holo Tropical Nail Stickers Review

 
I've been wanting to try these for ages but I kept putting off buying them...even though they're only 99p on eBay and at the end of March I finally decided to buy them. I bought them in both silver and gold and they're stickers instead of water decals (i'm useless with them). They arrived a week ago and it took me a while to figure out a simple yet effective look with them as they colour is quite brash.

As these are stickers I thought they would be easier to use than water decals but they are deceptively hard to pick up and I ruined the edges slightly trying to pry them off the backing paper. You can also see the clear outline of the sticker on the nail and a top coat doesn't help.

I was eager to buy these mainly for the holo effect but once they arrived I realised that only certain patches of the stickers have the holo effect and you can clearly see in places where the holo cuts off.

I'm at a bit of a loss at what to do with them now. I think the silver may look better as the colour isn't as brassy. I think these either have to be a white or super dark background for them to work as it's kind of hard to see any detail on a nude base. When I look down at my hands it just looks like I've applied some gold foil as the light reflections from the clear part of the sticker ruin the effect.

I know I can't really complain because it cost £2 in total but I'd definitely stick to stamping for the moment.

MATCH THAT MANI // Hollister Blackcurrant & Vanilla Body Wash Nails

Brace yourselves, it hit 18 DEGREES today...in a pandemic. I'm back home at my beach town and I can't go out and enjoy icecream on the beach because Resident Evil decided to become reality. So instead, I brought summer indoors and matched my mani to this glorious exfoliating body wash I bought from Hollister in the Autumn. Every time I used it I wanted to recreate that gradient and the entire mani just turned out better than I thought it would.

Brace yourselves again though because *drumroll* there is a video!

A real video with the whole process filmed. I really need to invest in a desk tripod for my DSLR because at the moment it feels like it's five light years away and I have to keep propping my hand up with boxes so you can actually see my hand.

I took 250 photos of this look; that's how much I loved it. When I saw the design in my head I honestly didn't think it would turn out this well. There are some rough edges (I'm not a pro) but practice makes perfect!

I think this is one of the best gradients I've ever done...that said I tend to say that about every gradient I do. I'm just surprised at how well I managed to match the colors given 75% of my collection is trapped in quarantine at the house share I live in. 

This was my test decal that I did and I must be getting better at drawing because I did not expect the lines to turn out so neat. To achieve this I got the logo off google, resized it in PhotoShop and then traced it off my monitor onto white paper. I then placed the paper underneath a clear nail art mat and traced again but with polish! I then applied some top coat; let it dry and peeled it off. Now I know this works the possibilities are endless!

This photo was taken in direct sunlight and I added some letters; they definitely need some work as they're not as neat as I wanted but I didn't change brushes. So I'm blaming it on the too-thick brush.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- MoYou London // Orchid Chic (purple), Mint Condition (blue)
- OPI Infinite Shine // Rice Rice Baby (dark pink)
- Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine // Tropical Pink (pink)
- H&M // Space Race (silver holo)

Hooplamingo // Clairestelle8 August 2019 Challenge

Another entry for this months August challenge. If I continue with this rate of productivity I may actually finish this one! I'm starting to utilise my weekends more though. It's so strange, I've not had weekends off since I was 13. I'm so used to doing everything on random days during the week. But anyway, I was inspired by @lieve91 for this mani as her designs are just always the best. I hope one I grow up to be as good as her (..it's depressing though 'cause I think we're the same age lol).

Here's me trying to do my best lieve91 hand pose. Somehow I don't think I'm quite there yet. This mani was a nice break though as it features no stamping. Yes that's right, no stamping. I finally used some of the numerous water decals that I keep buying but then never use because they're too cute. I then used a fine brush to draw the lines on. I really need to practice my hand drawn designs more.

I like this design but I don't love it. I think the Hoopla pink shade is just too pink for what I was going for. I ummed and ahhed over this or a sheer cuccio pink shade for quite a while. I also feel like the pink shimmer is misplaced and I should've done another finger with it to tie it all together. It's still nice and pink and basic though. Using the decals was fun though, I really need to start using them more often. I also got some foil paper recently as well.

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Ciaté // White Heat (white), Paradise Lost (pink/gold shimmer), Hoopla (pink)

- Born Pretty Water Decals// BN-866
- Barry M Hi-Shine // Plumpy Top Coat